"WE'RE happy enough with preparations but it's a monumental task. No county would envy us." Hard to argue with the words of Armagh's joint manager Brian Canavan four days ahead of their first-round match in the Ulster championship, a forbidding trip to National League champions and All-Ireland favourites Derry.

The backdrop to the match is doubly daunting as Armagh lost last year's fixture by an enormous 20 points, at home in the Athletic Grounds. Since then, Canavan and his co-manager Brian McAlinden, colleagues on the last Armagh side to win an Ulster title, in 1982, have been appointed to succeed Jim McCorry.

An unyielding late drive for promotion from Division Two by Armagh foundered on a final-day defeat by Cork, while Derry went on to retain their League title. Canavan is aware that it is a narrow zone within which the county can even aspire to revenge for last year.

"If we were to play above ourselves and they play below, there might be a chance. If they play to their full ability, nobody has much of a chance. Last year knocked the stuffing out of us, confidence-wise. A lot of the players were taken to the cleaners and I think they need a big win to restore confidence.

"A lot of people said we needed our heads examined taking on the job with having to play Derry again."

Presumably, the steepness of the task has contributed to reducing expectations and easing pressure on the new management.

"Pressure. It does and doesn't. If you don't win, it creates a negative vibe. Even in challenge matches. We'd been hoping for an extended run in the League. Over half our team are 22 or 23 and any experience of big matches, they've got a hiding.

In the intense world of Ulster football, traditional rivalries are conducted by their own arcane rules and precedents which exercise quite a grip on the championship. If the present tense is somewhat threatening for Armagh, Canavan has divined some comfort in the past.

He says that history holds bad omens for the Ulster championship campaigns of three teams. "Down can't win because no side that's played in a preliminary round has won the title. Tyrone can't win because no team's retained the title since 1976 and Derry may win Ulster but not the All-Ireland because they're League champions."

Reality intrudes, however, in the form of Down, All-Ireland champions in 1991 and `94 and winners of last Sunday's first match of the championship. They are also McKenna Cup holders, a distinction earned by beating Armagh in the final a few weeks ago.

"The McKenna Cup is used for giving fellas run-outs and we used it for that. Then in the final we met Down and they were full-strength - so were we - and they ran over us. In the League we looked a long way off Down, they annihilated us. In the McKenna Cup we narrowed the gap but didn't close it. But we did see three or four things that we've been able to sort out, things you wouldn't have seen in challenge matches.

According to Canavan, the team remains upbeat in the face of adversity. "Most of our players are looking forward to it. They're not that worried about Derry. In Ulster, you always feel that way about the other teams. If we can stay with them for the first 20 minutes, half an hour."

In the 12 months since last year's mauling, a number of established Armagh players have retired from inter-county activity: the Grimley twins, John and Mark, Neil Smyth and Jim McConville. Accordingly, the team has reviewed its playing approach, but opportunities to fine-tune the team's championship style have been rare in the last couple of years.

Last year we were depending on bigger fellas and the ball was in the air a bit more, says Canavan. "Now we run it a bit more, but you have to adapt. We basically keep the ball and try not to give it away stupidly but everything looks all right on the blackboard.

Armagh, will name their side after training tonight. A couple of hamstring injuries caused a delay in selection, otherwise the team would have been named on Monday. Team captain Martin McQuillan and Kieran McGeeney are expected to come through, but the decision will be made later on.